Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the late Triassic succession in the Wessex Basin and correlation with surrounding areas

Palaeoenvironments in the Mercia Mudstone Group (Late Triassic) of the Wessex Basin range from non-to fully marine, and freshwater to strongly evaporitic. Widely traceable, fossiliferous and arenaceous sediments of late Carnian age are present. Exposure of channel bedforms in this unit are described, together with facies reconstruction. Correlation with European and North American late Triassic successions is made, and good event correlation can be achieved from the Tethyan successions of Italy to the early rift sediments of the North Atlantic. This implies regional control on sedimentation, basin-wide events being most noticeable in the late Anisian, late Carnian and early Rhaetian. Sea level, modified by tectonism and climatic change may be involved.